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Digital Printing: The New Frontier of Flexible Packaging

Submitted by Donna Fiedler
on Wed, 2015-12-02 17:12

In recent years, the plastics industry has made significant progress towards becoming more efficient and inexpensive than in the past. With the help of digital printing, flexible packaging companies have more options for their products than ever before. Recent brand campaigns, including the tremendously popular 'Share a Coke' campaign, have used digital printing to reach a new level of interaction with consumers. Whether you're running a small business or large corporation, consider these facts about digital printing:

Minimum short-run batch sizes have decreased. This is great news for small businesses! For example, let's say a local coffee shop needed 30 flexible box pouches. Even for a short-run, they would have had to buy more box pouches than they needed in order to meet the minimum batch requirements. In a sense, their only option was to pay more money for too much of a product, only to have leftover packaging to deal with. For a small business, this translates into wasted money and wasted product. Today, though, the ability to deliver smaller batch requirements helps businesses manage costs better.

Efficiency and image quality have increased. Digital packaging solutions allow for a crisper image to be produced in a shorter period of time. Local businesses as well as national corporations are now able to personalize everything, from their pouch packaging to their shrink sleeves. Combined with the availability of smaller batch sizes, this makes for a great packaging solution for companies of all sizes.

The plastics industry is growing, taking flexible packaging along for the ride. With an impressive one million workers in the plastics industry, plastics usage is still growing. The flexible packaging market is expected to grow more than 30% by 2018. Digital printing will likely play a large role in that growth.

Flexible plastics production is on the cusp of a new frontier. Modern plastic food packaging now does more than just protect food from contamination. It bridges the gap between efficiency and creativity, leaving a lasting impression on consumers.